


The Lumos Agency

by mpdub



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 11:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20759960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mpdub/pseuds/mpdub
Summary: Sally Lockhart runs an advertising agency in the Wizarding world. This is always difficult, but it’s even more so when her client, Nimbus, signs Neville Longbottom as their new broom ambassador.-Inspired by the dogfather, although it won't explicitly reference it. That I know of, so far.





	The Lumos Agency

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [the dogfather](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13760487) by [hollimichele](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hollimichele/pseuds/hollimichele). 

An owl tumbled through an open window. It was too small for the weighty parchment clutched in its talons. It threw out its right talon to the human, staring until the human relieved it of its duty. Pleased at its accomplishment, the owl preened for a second, then perched at the waiting bowl to wait for the human to respond.

The young woman pondered whether it was too early in the day to open what must be bad news. Long messages very rarely contain good news for advertising agencies.

“Dear Ms Lockhart,” the letter began politely, “thank you very much for the presentation you delivered last Thursday. We were very pleased by your energy, your obvious passion for our business, and the amount of effort your team had clearly invested in the work you shared. As always, we enjoy working with you.”

Sally, who had rather been hoping for praise of the quality of the work, groaned and let her eyes glaze through the rest of the letter. She skimmed phrases like “the lack of emphasis of the increased speed of the Nimbus 2023 surprised us” and “do remember the majority of our advertising budget goes towards owl letter drops, not the Wizarding Wireless” and “there is some merit in your ideas but, for your substantial fee, we do expect more from our galleons…”

She skimmed until she saw a surprising conclusion. Nimbus had signed Neville Longbottom to be their new brand ambassador and had asked Sally to base an advertising campaign around him. They asserted, “…we do see significant brand alignment. Like Nimbus, Neville is a brave and progressive leader who transports the Wizarding world forward.” They had, perhaps deliberately, forgotten about Longbottom’s reputation as an awful flier, his general clumsiness, and current career as Herbology Professor at Hogwarts.

The letter ended: “We would like to discuss our feedback with you. Please reply by return owl if you are able to meet at our office tomorrow afternoon and we will ensure you have Floo access to conference room Astra.”

Sally sighed and rubbed her temples, wishing there was a spell that could cure frustration. The waiting owl, sensing action, held its talon for Sally’s reply, seeming disappointed at the thinness of Sally’s hurried reply. Hardly a challenge at all. It The owl left far more elegantly than it had entered, leaving the tired human to contemplate the visual of Neville Longbottom wobbling through the air on a broomstick far too fast for him to hope to control.

-

There is always a sense of something when you walk into a meeting. Sometimes it’s palpable dullness. A void of energy and passion, where you can be sure ideas will only die, not come to life. Or the opposite can be true, too. You can walk in and feel comfortable and part of a larger group, where you merge minds and come up with something you can scarcely believe you contributed to. And so on. There is always a sense of something.

In room Astra, there was a palpable nervous excitement emanating from the Nimbus executives. Everything up to this point, it seemed, had been a mundane rehearsal. A test, to make sure Sally and her team were the right sort, with no expectation that anything actually good would happen. Now: the real thing was starting.

The Marketing Manager, Kieran, greeted Sally and her creative partner Lleyton. “I do apologise again for the Floo debacle. I told Roger to make sure the Astra Floo was open for this meeting, and, well, obviously... I’m sorry. Don’t worry at all about the soot on the floor and please expense any costs to repair your clothes. Would you like to clean up in the bathroom before we start? No, of course, my son Adam does the same thing too, just wipes food right off his face, maybe he’s been the sensible one the whole time and I’m the silly one! ... well. Shall we? Of course, I’m sorry, please allow me to introduce — Richard, please, I would like to introduce you to our advertising agency partners. From Lumos, this is Sally and her creative conspirator Lleyton... Lumos because they believe in illuminating things to help people see things in new ways... lovely, don’t you think.... Sally and Lleyton, as you may know, Richard is our CEO of 25 years. No, 26. The party was last year... a rather good one. Well, let’s get started. Please take a seat.”

Sally and Lleyton hadn’t managed to get a sentence in, while Richard simply gave a nod and what may have been a small smile, but could equally have been a grimace. So more accurately, the nervous energy emanating in the room was coming from Kieran.

Sally felt she must calm the energy of the room, at least a little. “Kieran, thank you for the letter you sent yesterday. It was—“

“It was quite long, I know, I’m sorry.”

“No, not at all. We love working with you and Nimbus. And we’re very excited about the news you shared. Neville Longbottom is such a hero and it’ll—“

“Yes! Gosh, you won’t believe how long it took us to get him. He didn’t reply to the first ten letters we sent him. Then he finally said no. At least he finally replied, not like Harry Potter. Richard here told me it was a wild goose chase, and to settle for someone like Dean Thomas, but I knew it was a negotiating ploy. He kept telling me he wasn’t interested, that being a Herbology professor keeps him busy enough and so on. Lucky for us, more so for him, I suppose, was his discovery of the new Lebbiea Grandiflora plant. Did you hear about it? I mean, not many people read Herbology Today, other than people trying to convince Herbology professors to sign up with them...”

Lleyton faught a yawn, as she did every time Kieran rambled, and won the fight as soon as she felt Sally’s kick to the shin.

“...and it turns out Longbottom wants to grow Lebbiea Grandflora commercially. He doesn’t even know what it does yet! Hogwarts doesn’t quite pay enough for that sort of experiment. So we added a few more galleons, and he’s now a proud Nimbus ambassador!”

Lleyton had decided to counter boredom with exaggerated glee. With a smile bordering on insane, she congratulated Kieran before turning and asking, “Richard! I hope you’re as excited?”

Richard had been wondering what dinner that night would be and was rather surprised to find Lleyton’s hand on his arm. Recovering, he simply replied, “Yes.” He paused, saw Kieran’s eyebrows waggling encouragingly, and continued. “Perhaps not as much as Kieran, but yes. I must say, I don’t believe too much in advertising. We’ve never really needed it. But the moment the war ended, Kieran has been telling me that Longbottom has been the one to take Nimbus forward. And I am grateful for everything he did...” he paused. Most of the Wizarding world still did when the war was mentioned. “So I am more than happy to support Longbottom and have him support us.”

Sally has only been in her third year of Hogwarts when the war had ended. Her memories of Neville were vague and abstract. He’d been anonymous for her first two years, hidden behind the hijinks of the famous trio. And then he’d been a myth inside of the castle, whispered about as he defied the staff, but never seen. Not until that famous slaying of Nagini. He’d slain the dragon and then faded back into the shadows. Happily so, by all accounts.

“Mum will lose her mind when she finds out. Seriously. Like, she says it’s ‘totally inappropriate’ but still blushes whenever someone brings up how handsome he’s gotten. We’re going to need a double run of the next catalogue, just for my Mum.” Sally had often wondered where Lleyton’s eccentricity came from, until meeting Mrs Hughes.

Kieran laughed as if he knew the feeling. “Yes, Mums... although I might remind you that Mum’s the word until this is officially announced! Right. Lets get to business. Unfortunately, as you’ll remember from my letter, this means none of the excellent work you have presented so far will work. Sally, I know what’s about to roll off your tongue: yes, we will pay you for another round of creative work. Of course.”

Sally had actually been thinking about her mother, who she had last seen disappearing into the fog as Diagon Alley was overrun by Death Eaters, yelling for Sally to run and hide.

Kieran continued: “We’ve talked to Neville and he agrees a great first step would be for you both to meet him. He said he’d like a gentle reintroduction to flying. Hah! I bet he’s a fantastic flyer. Heroes usually are. Richard doubts me, because Longbottom never made a Quidditch team at Hogwarts, but he was hardly going to make Seeker over Harry Potter, was he?”

Richard looked distinctly less sure of Neville the more Kieran spoke. Sally decided not to share the stories she knew of Neville’s clumsiness.

Lleyton beamed, still maniacally: “We would love to meet him! I’ll bring me Mum shall I? Kidding, kidding, relax Kieran.”

Thirty minutes of discussion later, Sally and Lleyton returned to Lumos ready for their ritual they performed every time creative work was rejected.

“It’s definitely my turn this time. I didn’t sleep for the two nights before that last presentation.”

Sally had also been at the office alongside Lleyton and everyone else, but nodded her agreement. She pointed her wand at the extensive piles of parchment describing ideas for Nimbus and smiled, “_Wingardium Leviosa_.”

The parchment rose and separated into separate pages, trailing one after the other into a levitating circle.

This time, Lleyton’s ecstatic grin was real, as she aimed her wand at each rotating page of parchment and shouted “_Incendio_!” repeatedly, until a circle of burning parchment spun around the room.

The two witches joined arms as everything crumbled to dust.

“Another month of my life well spent,” declared Lleyton. “Ah well. Come on — time for a drink. I’ll go get everyone else. We’re meeting a hero next week. We may as well turn up looking relaxed.”

\---------

Notes:  
I've never written anything like this before. I've barely read fanfiction since the loooong wait for Goblet of Fire. I remember Jeconais was big. So was The Naked Quidditch Match. After the End still lingers in my head. And then I stopped, for a long time. Recently, I found "the dogfather" by nonasuch, I think on Reddit, and it is exquisite.

Anyway: I work in advertising, and as I read about Harry's Mum Caroline - in the dogfather universe - being a producer at Radio 4, I wondered what the magical advertising world might look like. So here's a stab.

(I know Sally Lockhart is a Phillip Pullman character. I think she's great, so this is, I don't know, a magical reincarnation after a long life.)


End file.
